August  14,  1902. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
163 
Young  Gardeners’  Domain. 
Stoking. 
Stoking  in  my  opinion  should  receive  by  young  gardeners 
the  same  careful  attention  they  would  attach  to  Orchids  or 
other  branches.  But  I  am  afraid  there  are  some  who  regard 
certain  parts  cf  the  profession  (because  they  don’t  seem  so 
interesting  as  others)  not  worth  that  due  care  and  cleanliness 
that  should  be  bestowed  on  them.  Stoking  is  one  of  these, 
and  it  is  often,  so  often  terribly  neglected.  The  way  to  treat 
and  manage  a  fire  properly  was  one  of  the  first  lessons  taught 
me  when  I  commenced  work.  I  have  profited  much  by  that 
lesson,  and  remembrance  is  still  vivid. 
Of  course  any  practical  person  knows  how  to  light  a  fire, 
and  no  doubt  not  a  few  know  how  to  manage  it  with  success 
afterwards  ;  to  the  uninitiated  it  is,  I  write.  The  first  opera¬ 
tion  when  starting  a  fire  is  to  thoroughly  clean  it  of  all  dust  and 
clinker,  moving  the  mass,  which  should  be  comparatively 
small,  to  and  fro  till  the  work  is  properly  done;  draw  the  fire 
near  the  dead-plate  and  clean  the  back  of  all  dust,  other¬ 
wise  a  bad  circulation  of  draught  will  follow.  This  finished, 
keep  the  fire  well  forward  to  the  door,  and  commence  feeding. 
Clean  ash-pit  daily,  and  brush  up  the  stokehole.  Now,  every 
time  the  fire  is  stoked,  keep  the  back  clean,  and  the  clinker- 
rake  well  worked  between  the  bars  from  underneath. 
Never  put  a  lot  of  fuel  on  at  one  time.  If  it  is  necessary  to 
drive  fiercely,  my  motto  is  to>  feed  sparingly,  but  attend 
frequently.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  attempt  to  obtain  the 
maximum  amount  of  beat  by  fiercely  driving  the  fire  and 
wasting  '  large  quantity  of  fuel,  with  the  damper  carelessly 
used,  by  having  it  too  far  out  or  up,  as  the  case  may  be, 
causing  a  lot  of  heat  to  go  up  the  chimney  without  giving  much 
help  to  the  boiler. 
The  theory  of  stoking  is  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  heat 
with  the  least  amount  of  trouble  and  expenditure,  and  this  is 
more  easily  accomplished  by  keeping  the  fire  well  forward,  so 
enabling  the  flame-heat  to  travel  the  whole  length  of  boiler, 
and  that  not  too  swiftly.  Of  course,  when  the  term  “  banking- 
up  ”  is  used,  the  work  is  in  a  sense  reversed.  Push  the  fire  a 
reasonable  distance  towards  the  back  of  boiler,  and  throw  on 
the  quantity  of  fuel  considered  enough  to  last,  regulating  the 
damper  accordingly.  The  foregoing  remarks  apply  principally 
to  boilers  of  the  saddle  and  Cornish  types. — A  Man  of  Kent. 
Lispings.— By  One  ok  Flora’s  Nursery. 
A  garden  is  a  place  where  we  grow  flowers,  vegetables,  and 
sometimes  fruit,  but  fruit  is  usually  grown  in  orchards.  In  some 
places  only  flowers  are  grown  in  the  gardens,  and  in  others  only 
vegetables.  The  gardens  are  larger  in  the  country7  than  in 
the  towns.  There  are  two  kinds  of  flowers:  (1)  Garden  flowers, 
and  (2)  Wild  flowers.  I  will  now  try  to  give  a  list  of  garden 
flowers:  Roses,  Lilies,  Violets,  Daffodils,  Snowdrops,  Crocuses, 
Asters,  Stocks,  Wallflowers.  It  is  only  a  short  list,  but  I  must 
now  get  on  to  something  else.  I  would  like  to  give  you  my  idea 
of  a  pretty  garden — how  a  garden  ought  to  be  in  summer. 
Take  a  round  garden,  for  instance.  It  ought  to  have  a 
border  of  Roses  and  a  lawn  in  the  midst,  with  a  summer  house 
at  one  side  and  a  pretty  pink  and  white  rockery  on  the  other. 
A  front  garden  in  spring  looks  best  with  plenty  of  those  pretty 
spring  flowers,  such  as  Crocuses,  Snowdrops,  Hyacinths,  Prim¬ 
roses,  Winter  Aconites,  Daffodils,  and  Violets.  Gardens  in 
which  very  little  can  be  grown  do  not  look  badly  with  a  rockery 
all  round  covered  with  Ivy,  Woodruff,  Creeping  Jenny,  and 
Periwinkle.  Lawns  look  much  nicer  with  a  floral  border  than 
just  plain,  and  gardens  look  nice  with  plenty  of  large  shady 
trees.  I  once  lived  at  a  house  where  there  was  a  Rose  tree 
nearly  as  big  as  a  summer  house,  and  the  name  of  the  Rose 
was  ‘‘Ruga”  (P). 
In  autumn  everybody  ought  to  take  great  care  to  sweep  up 
the  leaves,  as  it  makes  the  garden  untidy  to  have  leaves  blowing 
about.  Rose  trees  look  very  nice  on  walls  as  hedges,  and  up 
pillars.  At  the  house  I  am  living  at  now  there  is  rather  a  pretty 
rockery  in  the  middle  of  the  front  garden.  Window-boxes  look 
very  nice  filled  with  Stocks  and  Asters.  Clematis  and  Roses 
lock  very  pretty  on  old  rustic  porches.  Last  year  we  had  a 
large  bed  of  Poppies  of  every  shade  except  blue.  We  had  two 
very  pretty  tall  flowers  last  year,  which  were  large  Lilies  and 
Hollyhocks.  One  of  my  mothers  favourite  flowers  were  Con- 
vojvulus,  because  every  morning  there  was  a  different  colour. 
Children  are  very  fond  of  having  little  gardens  cf  their  own  in 
which  they  grow  all  manner  of  funny  things,  such  as  Chick- 
weed,  Ac.  We  have  a  Willow  tree  in  the  front  garden,  which  is 
very  nice  to  hide  under  in  summer.  One  ought  to  kill  all  the 
snails  one  sees,  for  snails  eat  up  all  leaves,  and  then  the  plant 
dies.  Gardens  look  nice  in  winter  with  a  few  evergreens,  such 
as  Holly,  Myrtle,  Ivy,  and  Laurel.  When  gathering  flowers 
children  often  get  them  with  very  short  stalks,  but  when  I  pick 
flowers  my  mother  makes  me  pull  them  with  long  stalks,  and  she 
tells  me  not  to  forget  plenty  of  foliage. — Daffodil  Margaret 
Fisher,  aged  9  years. 
W0KK.F°ffTHE  WEEK,,!' 
t' 
Fruit  Forcing. 
PEACHES  AND  NECTARINES:  EARLIEST  FORCED 
HOUSE. — Trees  started  in  December  and  early  January  must  not 
lack  water  at  the  roots.  When  this  occurs  during  the  formation 
and  perfecting  of  the  buds  they  become  deaf,”  and  fall  instead 
of  expanding  into  blossom  when  started.  Affording  a  slight 
shade  to  trees  under  fixed  roofs  where  the  panes  of  glass  are  large 
has  the  advantage  of  preserving  the  foliage  in  good  condition, 
thus  preventing  premature  maturity  of  the  foliage  and  the  over¬ 
development  of  the  buds,  which  is  one  of  the  causes  of  their 
dropping.  Supply  a  top-dressing  of  phosphatic  and  potassic 
manure  to  weakly  trees,  and  water  as  may  be  necessary  to  keep 
the  soil  in  a  moist  condition.  Needless  waterings  only  saturate 
the  soil,  sour  it,  and  destroy  the  roots.  Where  the  lights  have 
been  removed  watering  may  not  be  required,  but  attention  must 
be  given  to  this  matter  by  timely  examination.  Rain  is  accom¬ 
panied  by  a  lower  temperature,  and  no  harm  results  provided  the 
borders  are  properly  drained;  indeed,  the  ammonia  and  nitric 
acid  brought  down  by  rain  have  a  most  beneficial  effect  on  the 
trees.  Allow  some  laterals  that  are  green  to  remain,  as  such 
unripe  growths  act  as  outlets  for  any  excess  of  sap,  a  safeguard 
against  starting  the  buds,  hence  in  pruning  it  is  not  desirable  to 
cut  back  next  year’s  bearing  wood  unless  the  shoots  are  of  great 
length.  Very  little  pruning  will  be  needed  providing  disbudding 
has  been  properly  attended  to,  and  no  more  wood  been  trained 
in  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  replace  that  bearing  in  the 
current  year,  and  to  renew  worn-out  growths.  Early  forced 
trees  do  not,  as  a  rule,  make  strong  growth,  and  there  is  often  a 
preponderance  of  blossom  over  wood  buds,  therefore  need  but 
little  pruning.  Trees  long  subjected  to  early  forcing  become  en¬ 
feebled  and  are  benefited  by  cutting  out  some  of  the  old  wood, 
especially  the  long  branches,  but  this  must  be  done  judiciously, 
always  having  regard  to>  a  crop.  Some  trees  are  the  exact 
opposite,  making  too  vigorous  growth,  long-jointed,  and  these 
should  be  restrained.  This  is  not  effected  by  stopping,  though 
it  is  useful  in  causing  a  diversion  of  the  sap  from  the  strong  to 
the  weaker  parts  of  the  trees,  thereby  assisting  in  an  equal  dis¬ 
tribution  of  the  nutriment,  consequently  tending  to  the  maturity 
of  the  wood  and  buds.  Any  trees  that  grow  too  vigorously  must 
be  lifted  and  their  roots  laid  in  firm  material  near  the  surface. 
Those  showing  symptoms  of  weakness  may  have  the  old  soil  care¬ 
fully  removed  from  amongst  the  roots,  supplying  turfy  loam, 
with  an  8in  potful  of  two  parts  wood  ashes  and  one  part  bone- 
meal,  mixed,  to  each  barrowload  of  rather  strong  loam.  Give  a 
good  watering  both  to  lifted  and  soil-renovated  trees,  mulching 
with  short  manure.  These  operations  require  to  be  performed 
as  soon  as  the  leaves  have  matured,  but  by  or  before  they  fall 
from  the  trees. 
SECOND  EARLY  HOUSES. — The  trees  having  had  the  bear¬ 
ing  wood  cut  out  and  kept  free  from  insects,  will  now  have  the 
weed  sufficiently  matured  to  admit  of  the  removal  of  the  roof 
lights,  where  these  are  moveable.  This  exposure  has  a.  beneficial 
effect  on  the  trees,  the  air  hardening  the  growths,  and  the  dews 
and  rains  cleansing  the  foliage,  while  growth  is  arrested  on  the 
one  hand,  and  steady  maturity  of  the  other  secured.  In  the 
case  of  fixed  roofs  and  the  panes  of  glass  large  and  clear,  it  is 
an  excellent  plan  to  coat  the  glass  with  a  thin  wash  of  whitening 
and  skim  milk,  applying  with  a  brush.  Admit  air  to  the 
fullest  extent,  and  see  that  the  trees  are  kept  free  from  insects 
and  not  neglected  for  water  at  the  roots. 
TREES  CLEARED  OF  THEIR  CROPS.— Cut  away  the 
shoots  that  have  borne  fruit  unless  required  for  extension,  and 
where  the  growdhs  are  too  crowded  they  should  be  thinned. 
This  will  allow  air  and  light  to  harden  the  wood  by  increasing 
evaporation  and  elaboration,  and  more  food  will  be  stored  in  the 
buds  and  adjacent  stems  for  the  benefit  of  the  blossoms  and  fruit 
in  the  coming  season.  It  will  also  permit  of  the  foliage  being 
kept  clean  and  healthy  through  freer  access  of  water  by  the 
syringe  or  engine,  also,  if  necessary,  the  more  efficient  applica¬ 
tion  of  an  insecticide  for  cleansing  the  trees  of  red  spider,  brown 
aphis,  and  scale.  These  matters  are  very  important,  as  it  is 
essential  that  the  foliage  be  kept  clean  and  healthy  to  the  last. 
Water  must  be  given,  as  it  is  necessary  at  the  roots,  but  avoid 
needless  waterings,  especially  when  the  trees  are  vigorous,  and 
lifting  is  intended.  Admit  air  to  the  fullest  extent,  especially 
at  night. 
HOUSES  WITH  FRUIT  RIPENING.— A  free  circulation  of 
.  air  will  enhance  the  quality  of  the  fruit,  and  water  need  only  be 
j  given  to  prevent  the  foliage  becoming  limp.  Secure  air  moisture 
|  by  an  occasional  damping  of  the  house  for  the  benefit  of  the 
